Well, it’s not on again, and hopefully, the matter should be put to rest this time. First, it was reported that there were no plans to introduce it. Then, it was said to be on the cards. Now, word is that the long-rumoured Ford Fiesta RS isn’t going to happen, according to Ford Performance vehicle engineering manager Tyrone Johnson.
The man responsible for the development of the Focus RS told Australian publication CarAdvice that that there’s no Fiesta RS on the cards. “In terms of Fiesta RS, I have seen some comments from senior Ford people that it’s definitely not in the plan. Typically, we don’t talk about future products, but in that particular one there has been some comments that it’s definitely not in the plan,” he told the publication.
The talk of a range-topping performance version of the B299 first surfaced in October last year, when Jamal Hameedi, Ford Performance’s global chief engineer, told Drive said that the business case for a series production Fiesta RS would be difficult to construct.
However, Autobild came out with a report in December stating that the project was apparently a go, with a supposed 2017 launch date for it, to commemorate the Fiesta’s 40th anniversary. The German publication intimated that RS was set to feature a bumped-up 250 hp tune running off the 1.6 litre EcoBoost engine found in the current Fiesta ST.
If it had arrived next year as suggested, the RS variant would have made its appearance very late in the game to bring the curtain down on the B299 Fiesta. The B-segment offering has been around since 2008, and so a replacement is due on the cards. Guess the ST is as fast as it gets where the seventh-gen is concerned.
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